17 Sep FERTILITY CLINIC “NIGHTMARE”: COUPLE SUES FAMED IVF CLINIC OF KIM KARDASHIAN AND KANYE WEST FOR WRONGFULLY THROWING AWAY THEIR 16 EMBRYOS
Reproductive Partners Medical Group Also Treated Chrissy Teigen, Paris Hilton, Khloe Kardashian, and Was Featured on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians.’
LOS ANGELES – SEPTEMBER 17, 2024 – Marissa Calhoun and Stephen Castaneda, who are former patients of Dr. Andy Huang at Reproductive Partners Medical Group (RPMG), filed a major lawsuit today against the clinic for wrongfully and intentionally throwing away 16 of their embryos. As a result, the couple may not be able to have biological children.
The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County by Adam Wolf of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise (Peiffer Wolf).
According to RPMG’s website, Dr. Huang treated Kim Kardashian during her “public struggle to conceive a second child with Kanye West,” and he appeared regularly on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Kardashian referred to Dr. Huang as “her IVF Magician,” and he reportedly treated Paris Hilton, Chrissy Teigen, Jen Atkin and Khloe Kardashian, Kim’s younger sister.
Adam Wolf, partner at Peiffer Wolf, said: “What makes this case so outrageous is that RPMG not only failed to label Marissa and Stephen’s embryos, but then threw away those unlabeled embryos without any thought or concern. Then RPMG repeatedly failed to disclose their records of this disaster. Instead of providing a full set of records, as it was required, RPMG provided incomplete records on three separate occasions. RPMG gaslighted Marissa and Stephen. This is no way to treat any patient, let alone people who trusted you to start their family.”
Marissa Calhoun, a former patient of Dr. Andy Huang at RPMG, said: “This is our worst nightmare. Our hearts are broken and we feel so betrayed. As someone who suffers from severe endometriosis, I’m reliant on IVF to make my dreams of becoming a mother a reality. I trusted RPMG with this enormously emotional and difficult journey, and that turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.”
Stephen Castaneda, Marissa’s partner and former patient of Dr. Andy Huang at RPMG, said: “This loss is devastating. Marissa and I are going through a grieving process. We are trying to come to grips with the fact that we may never get to have the family we so badly want to have. RPMG’s conduct has taken a terrible toll on both of us. It infuriates me.”
According to the lawsuit, Marissa’s initial treatment at RPMG began in 2021, when she sought assistance to preserve her fertility because of her worsening endometriosis, by having her eggs retrieved and frozen. To further her future goals of becoming a mother, Marissa endured three difficult surgical egg-retrieval procedures in 2021 and 2022, with the retrieved eggs stored by RPMG. Marissa and Stephen were elated to have enough eggs to have the family they eventually wanted.
In October 2023, Marissa learned that she would need to undergo surgery that could further compromise her fertility. At the advice of Dr. Huang, Marissa and Stephen made the decision to create embryos using Marissa’s stored eggs and Stephen’s sperm before Marissa’s operation took place. Dr. Huang advised that doing so would help them evaluate whether it might be advisable for Marissa to undergo an additional egg retrieval before her operation in the event Marissa and Stephen didn’t end up with enough viable embryos following fertilization for their desired family size. Later that month, RPMG informed Marissa and Stephen that it had fertilized her eggs and placed them in an incubator to grow into viable embryos.
Tragically, a few days later, Dr. Huang, RPMG’s employee who was primarily responsible for Marissa’s and Stephen’s care in October 2023, called and informed them that RPMG had discarded, and thus destroyed, their embryos.
Reproductive Partners Medical Group Also Treated Chrissy Teigen, Paris Hilton, Khloe Kardashian, and Was Featured on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians.’
In the following days, Marissa and Stephen inquired as to how such a disaster could have occurred. RPMG eventually admitted that one of its employees had not labeled the embryos before placing them in the incubator, and then later took the unlabeled embryos out of the incubator and threw them away.
RPMG’s incompetence and recklessness only increased from there. Marissa and Stephen requested their records to help understand how RPMG made this grave error. But instead of providing a full set of records, RPMG provided an incomplete set of records on three separate occasions, repeatedly sending a set of their records that stopped before their embryos were thrown out. This omitted any reference to RPMG’s discarding their embryos approximately one week later. Each time, Marissa advised RPMG that it needed to send her complete records.
RPMG’s website lists locations in Beverly Hills/Los Angeles, Los Angeles/South Bay and Orange County, with a hotline located in Beijing for Chinese patients. This year, RPMG was ranked #32 on Newsweek’s America’s Best Fertility Clinics.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Max Karlin at (703) 276-3255 or [email protected].
Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise is a national law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Cleveland, Youngstown, St. Louis and Detroit. Visit https://lostembryos.com/ for more information.